Mile 0: Starting over, again?

It happened again on Thursday -- one little step from pavement to a sidewalk and it was like I was getting stabbed in the calf.

The same calf that I had issues with last summer.

This seemed different though -- it seemed more like a cramp after a few steps, but it didn't go away. I thought that maybe because it was hot and I was adjusting to afternoon running that it was just a cramp.

Fast forward four days and I'm 99% sure that it's not a cramp. It felt fine for a half mile today, but I could feel the pain slowly come back. Not a stabbing pain this time; just a dull aching pain that was getting worse with each foot step.

But unlike last year there is no other pain nearby. Last year I kept putting off plantar fasciitis issues until the calf strain struck. This, to me, feels like a total fluke because of a slight misstep from one surface to the next.

I was coming back from 0 miles back in February after I got sick and had just gotten back to 6 miles for a long run; this is also after I had gotten back to 10 in January from last year's injury when I was at 0 miles for a long time.

I've said to myself many times since last summer that if I got hurt again that I was quitting running; well, I'm only quitting for a few days and doing a few other things until I try to run again. It's not enough to go to a doctor yet, but it is unbelievably disappointing to be here, again.

I call this Mile 0 because that's what it is. It's a starting over point no matter how serious it is. Maybe it'll be short-lived; maybe not; maybe it is just a cramp that I can't recover from; maybe it's much more serious. Time will tell...